Mumbai:
TCS,
Infosys and Patni computers have been selected by Dutch
financial services giant ABN AMRO as three of its five
IT-vendors. The total value of the contracts between
the five is approximately €1.8 billion.

The
selected vendors are:

IT
Infrastructure: IBM

Application
support and enhancements: Infosys and Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS)

The
contracts with Infosys and TCS are for application support
and enhancements to the bank. Both companies will be
allocated the maintenance of selected applications across
ABN Amro''s business units. The implementation of the
agreements will be phased over 18 months.

In
addition, ABN AMRO has chosen Accenture, IBM, Infosys,
Patni and TCS as its preferred vendors to develop new
applications across all business units of the bank.

The
five-year outsourcing contract with IBM is for overseeing
IT infrastructure services for the bank world-wide,
except the bank''s ''wholesale clients business unit'',
which was outsourced to EDS in 2003. Under the agreement,
IBM is expected to assume management of the majority
of ABN AMRO''s global IT systems, including servers,
storage systems and desktops. The service commencement
date for the IT infrastructure services is 1 November
2005.

This
IT service solution encompasses in-house consolidation,
partial outsourcing, multi-vendor strategies and offshoring
for streamlining of the bank''s global IT organisation.
The Dutch group''s initiative is intended to create a
new technology organisation of approximately 1,800 full-time
equivalents (FTEs), compared to a total of approximately
5,000 FTEs currently working in IT within the bank world-wide.
Approximately 2,000 FTEs will be transferred to the
selected IT vendors, of which a majority will go to
IBM.

The
bank expects to reduce its IT staff by 1,500 over the
next 18 months.

The
outsourcing exercise, called the ''group shared services''
(GSS) programme, is aimed at creating value across the
Dutch conglomerate through higher operational efficiency,
optimising operational risk and increased flexibility.

The
GSS IT initiative is expected to generate at least €258
million in savings annually from 2007 excluding savings
from its EDS contracts.

Combined
with its other savings related initiatives like offshoring,
HR, real estate, the total savings are expected to exceed
€600 million from 2007 onwards.

Hugh
Scott-Barrett, Chief Operating Officer and member of
ABN AMRO''s managing board said: "This major IT
initiative enables us to deliver the ''fuel for growth''
to support the required sustainable competitive growth
for the bank. The agreements with selected vendors allow
us to utilise the latest technology to further improve
the services we offer our clients. We expect that this
IT programme that is shared across the Group will contribute
to the savings in line with earlier estimates made by
the bank, while improving IT services within the Group."